


A Huge Step Up

by fazcinatingreads



Category: AFL - Fandom, Football - Fandom, Sports - Fandom, collingwood training, melbourne player, preseason training, tom mcdonald - Fandom, training - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:35:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27365917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fazcinatingreads/pseuds/fazcinatingreads
Summary: Tom McDonald arrives at Collingwood for his first day of preseason training.





	A Huge Step Up

**Author's Note:**

> This is written from Tom McDonald's perspective.

Tom McDonald walked through the doors of the Holden Centre, expecting at the very least a standing ovation. His brother Oscar trailed him timidly, carrying two big bags and a suitcase on wheels. Tom glanced around, wondering where everyone was. It was day 1 of preseason. Tom made his way to the locker room, where Oscar placed the bags at the locker number 11. Tom sat down and put on his boots, and Oscar scurried away, coming back a few minutes with a glass of Diet Coke and a straw poking out of it.

Tom drank the Diet Coke greedily, wiping his lips and burping in Oscar's face. 

It was time to find out where his teammates were. Tom walked out of the locker room in his training gear, boots clacking on the floor, and stepped in a gym. He stopped dead in the entrance to the gym, Oscar colliding with his back, as he took in the amount of gym equipment and all the heavy weights that the players were lifting. Every player seemed to be in here. Every player working hard at their weights session.

Tom was gobsmacked. This didn't happen at Melbourne FC. At Melbourne, there was just a few dusty weights in a corner of their lunch room but no one felt the need to use them.

"Tom!" Bucks called, waving from the other side of the room where he was observing, "nice of you to join us!"

"H-hi," Tom called back, hesitantly.

A trainer came over and took him and Oscar to a weights machine where he was taught how to lift and Oscar was shown how to spot. They did this for hours and Tom hoped that it was helping. Maybe it would help Oscar, a fringe player at best, but Tom considered himself a superior key forward, already among the likes of Tom Hawkins and Charlie Dixon. He didn't need to get any stronger. He just needed a few light jogs like he did for years at Gosch's Paddock and then Diet Cokes to refresh.

After the gym session, it wasn't time for lunch like Tom hoped. They had a cool down session in the pools and then straight onto the training track.

Oscar carried a towel and water bottle and followed Tom around to each activity. On the training track, they did a whole range of kicking drills, match practice, handball drills (they loved handballing), and goalkicking practice. Most players just had drinks at the designated drinks breaks, but Tom needed Oscar by his side constantly with a full water bottle at all times. He was exhausted. And they'd only just started.

This was to be the longest preseason of his life.


End file.
